406 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I believe it is the acknowledged conviction of every individual 

 who has given due thought to this subject, that the true, 

 economical, and permanent improvement of our neat stock is to 

 be effected by crossing the best bred sires of some one or other of 

 the improved breeds upon the best females of our present stock, 

 the female offspring to be again crossed in like manner, while 

 the males, without exception, are either castrated or slaughtered 

 while young. 



Let this course of breeding be firmly pursued during a series 

 of years, and we shall have a stock possessing and exhibiting 

 the marked characteristics of the breed from which we have 

 chosen our males, and which can be obtained in no other way 

 except by resort to pure bred animals of both sire and dam. 



I could name a farmer in the highlands of western Massachu- 

 setts, whose entire herd of more than twenty animals are 

 descendants of one ordinary, pale red, long-horn cow, not as 

 desirable as can be found at the present time in almost any 

 farmyard. Yet this herd is remarkably uniform, and possesses 

 characteristics of the pure bred Short-horn. 



How has this change been wrought ? I answer, simply by 

 the continued use of thoroughbred bulls of this breed for more 

 than twenty years, and by careful weeding. That is, by retain- 

 ing as breeders such heifers only as approached most nearly to 

 his ideal standard. To such a degree of perfection is this herd 

 brought at the present time, that there is seldom occasion to 

 apply the weeding process. 



One of the greatest hindrances to permanent improvement is 

 found in the use of these impure worthless bulls. Many who 

 make one cross, go no further. If tlie produce of this first 

 cross be a male, it is quite likely to be kept as a sire, and in the 

 amount of patronage bestowed becomes a successful rival of his 

 pure bred sire. He possesses in equal proportion the blood of 

 sire and dam ; but in appearance resembles more nearly the 

 former, and for any other purpose than that of breeding is 

 valuable. How is it with his offspring ? Are they superior, or 

 even equal to the sire ? By no means, but generally inferior ; 

 and this should be expected. In them, the impure blood is 

 largely in the ascendency, and with each successive cross of this 

 kind becomes more apparent, until the improvement, so marked 

 at first, is lost sight of, and we arrive at the bottom of the scale. 



